LGBTQ Civil Rights Under Fire

Attorney General Jeff Sessions stays true to his colors

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has just filed an amicus brief that said that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not cover “discrimination based on sexual orientation” in regards to employment. The brief was filed in a lawsuit that charged that an employee had been fired due to his sexual orientation. Donald Zarda worked for Altitude Express, a sky-diving company and said he was fired after he told a client that he was gay. Zarda has since passed away but his estate is continuing the suit.

Sessions and Trump in the past two days have made clear that they are out to diminish the civil rights of LGBTQ. Neither actions should be a surprise to anyone if they paid attention to Trump’s rhetoric and appeal to the religious right during his campaign and to Sessions long history of voting against the rights of LGBTQ people.

According to CNN, this particular egregious act was met with a scathing response from the ACLU,

“Fortunately, courts will decide whether the Civil Rights Act protects LGBT people, not an Attorney General and a White House that are hell-bent on playing politics with people’s lives,” said James Esseks, director of the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project, in a statement. “We are confident that the courts will side with equality and the people.”